Hundreds of private gas station operators yesterday protested outside compounds belonging to CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) and the Ministry of Economic Affairs, demanding higher margins from selling the state-owned refiner’s products.
The protesters said they have experienced constrained margins since 2011, when CPC began canceling or decreasing incentives for private gas station operators in either monthly or yearly increments.
They said the changes have created a difficult operating environment.
Photo: CNA
“The profit margin rate for selling unleaded gasoline has fallen to 7 percent from 14 percent,” Gas Station Operators’ Association director-general Lee Wei-lung (李威龍) said. “The margin rate for biodiesel sales has dropped to 4 percent, which is affecting business survival.”
Lee said the difference between retail and wholesale prices for gasoline had remained unchanged for more than 15 years, but increasing operational costs and rising minimum wages have given private gas station operators a very hard time.
“There is no chance for private gas station operators if CPC refuses to fix the situation,” he said.
The protesters also urged the ministry to end its biodiesel fuel policy in the wake of fuel problems for motorists.
Taiwan Car Rental and Travel Group (台灣租車旅遊集團) general manager Hsu Hao-yuan (徐浩源) said there have been many cases where its vehicles have stalled in the middle of the road because of B2 biodiesel — which is 98 percent conventional diesel fuel blended with 2 percent biodiesel.
Hsu said the B2 biodiesel produces microbes that clog fuel tanks and severely affect a vehicle’s performance and safety.
“Our company takes thousands of tourists to Hehuanshan (合歡山) every day... It would be dangerous if a vehicle stalls while navigating the mountain,” Hsu said.
CPC vice president Chang Ray-chung (張瑞宗) said the margin for private gas station operators is NT$2.46 per liter, but CPC has begun discussing the possibility of adjusting the rate and will communicate with government agencies and consumer organizations on the issue.
CPC plans to propose a new margin in three months’ time, he said.
As for the use of biodiesel, Chang said the company phased out its biodiesel fuel policy in May and has been discontinuing B2 biodiesel supplies since then.
Separately, the refiner yesterday denied a report published by the Chinese-language Next Magazine regarding the gas pipeline explosions in Greater Kaohsiung in July and August.
The report said that CPC knew there were abnormal readings from the underground petrochemical pipelines three hours before the explosions, but did not report them or take any action.
Chang said that after the explosions took place, CPC checked the records and discovered abnormal pressure readings.
Cairo’s new monorail slices across the city skyline, running above the familiar chaos of blaring horns and aging buses’ exhaust fumes that mark rush hour below. The US$4.5 billion monorail, opened this month, is among Egypt’s most prominent new transport projects, part of a debt-funded infrastructure drive criticized for sapping state finances while bringing limited benefits to most of the country’s 109 million people. “It feels like you’re in a different country,” said Ramy Sayed, a restaurant manager, aboard a driverless Innovia 300 train. “No noise, no traffic, we’re not used to this.” The eastern line runs 56km from the bustling middle-class
Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) today unveiled a long-haul network expansion plan at a shareholders’ meeting in Taipei, including direct flights to Barcelona, Spain, and Zurich, Switzerland, as well as a service connecting Taipei, Sydney and New Zealand. Starlux is to become the first Taiwanese carrier to offer non-stop services to the two European cities, while the inaugural oceanic route is expected to expand transit opportunities within the Australia-New Zealand market, Starlux said. Flight services to Chicago, Dallas, Washington and New York are under evaluation, the airline added. Prior to the shareholders’ meeting, the airline earlier this year announced that it would be
Taiwanese firms have increased investment in the Philippines in recent years as Manila’s ties with Washington deepen and global supply chains continue to shift away from China, an expert at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The Philippines had not been among Taiwanese investors’ top choices in Southeast Asia, CIER Taiwan ASEAN Studies Center director Kristy Hsu (徐遵慈) said at a seminar in Taipei. However, Taiwan’s investment in the country has grown significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching US $257 million last year, a high in recent years, she said. Although Taiwan’s total investment in the Philippines still lags
Taiwanese prosecutors suspect that three people successfully smuggled at least one shipment of Nvidia Corp artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China after first exporting them to Japan, people familiar with the matter said. The trio was detained last week by the Keelung District Prosecutors’ Office for allegedly falsifying documents related to exports of Super Micro Computer Inc servers containing advanced Nvidia chips, which the US has barred from sale to China without a license from Washington. The move marked Taiwan’s first public crackdown on AI chip diversion after years of pressure from the US to take a more active role in curtailing
RSS